Nothing reminds you more of becoming older than getting a letter than the DVLA writing to you saying, ‘Oh hey girl, now you’re entering your late twenties, you better update your driving licence photo’

I won’t lie; I may have done a little cry. It only seems like yesterday when I first got my provisional driving licence and took the photographs in the little photobooth hungover in Birmingham New Street station. Now being told to change it; I won’t lie it was a nice creeping reminder that girl is getting old.

It was another reminder that I’m getting closer and closer to 30 and yet again reminding me that I am still bimbling my way through adult life. Still reminding me that I don’t know if it will ever click and if I will ever think I’ve got this. It’s pretty scary and it’s that constant reminder that, actually, I’m in my late 20’s now. 27 is the year I get married, and maybe possibly have a mortgage. It’s the year where everything on paper says I’m a freaking grown up.

The biggest element I want about our wedding is that it’s us. I want it so badly to reflect a vibe that captures me and The Geek. I want it oozing with the little bits that make us tick; our favourite geeky little shows, our love for holidays, our alcohol fuelled states and the laughter in our relationship. Surprisingly, it’s been hard to capture these elements without it being over the top.

Cheerz came to the rescue and sent us their Zankyou Wedding Decoration Box*, which has been very well received. Including 100 retro style prints, the box came with string, miniature crafting pegs, a trusty notebook, a silver marker pen and a book full of ideas. As well as giving me all the basics to get straight into wedding crafting

Last Friday, I finished the job I’ve been in for the past 2 and a bit years. And as of today, I’ve just completed my first week in my new role.

It got me thinking that I’ve been in the professional world of work since I graduated in 2012. Technically, I’ve been working since I was 16 but that was a bar work mixed with my favourite job of all time, working at a bookies. My past 5 years in professional, 9-5 work has seen me learn a lot of lessons and at 21, I didn’t have a clue what was coming to me.

Ever since we got engaged in 2016, everyone has had something to say on my willingness to change my surname to my partner’s surname once we’re married next year.

Wedding planning has bought me a lot of unwanted stress, anxious thoughts and there’s been times where I’ve downright hated it. Making decisions on things I didn’t really care about, or chasing people up on the simplest of things and getting very little response. But, knowing my surname’s days are numbered was one of the easiest decisions out of the lot, and yet it’s the one thing where people have freely expressed their opinion to me on.

It has been another weekend of not doing a lot, the classic weekend before payday where you’ve gotta stay in cause you definitely cannot be out buying double gin and lemonades all weekend. It was a weekend of chores. A weekend of necessity but not the weekend of living your best life. And then, after you’ve inhaled your Sunday dinner, yet another person has posted on Facebook,’ I’m off to Australia for a year – see ya’

It’s not what I want; it isn’t what I want at all to be travelling for a year but I cannot help that my heart does a little jealousy pang. Right now, my most missed item is my disposable cash and my passport.

This year has probably been the most grown up year of my life. I’ve been planning a wedding, I’ve had to make a budget and actually stick to it and I’ve had to not book any spontaneous holidays abroad. The Geek and I have talked about mortgages, moving further into Birmingham and actually life changing things. We nearly got a second dog but adult us talked ourselves out of it.

I’ve thought more on where I want my career to go; what I actually want to do and what will make me happy. Whilst paying the bills and trying to live our best life.

This is something that’s sat pretty strange with me ever since I bought Rufus home a little over 2 years ago.

I do not call myself a Dog Mum.

People find it strange that I don’t give myself this title, and neither does my partner. It was never a conversation that we had or an active decision we made when Rufus first entered our lives. But, when people referred us as Rufus ‘parents’ or his ‘Mum’ or ‘Dad’. We just looked looked at each other and awkwardly smiled at each other thinking I have no idea how to comprehend it.

It was a weird thing that just never, ever sat with us right. Pottering around the house, if we tell Rufus to go to either of us, we’ve always used our own names. It’s something that I’ve tried and I’ve always found quite strange that it has never sat naturally with me.

When we first got engaged and booked our wedding I was determined to do as much as I could myself. In the past year, the biggest thing I’ve learnt about wedding planning is that it’s so freaking expensive. And the second thing I learnt is that it’s so easy to get caught up in spending money like nobody’s business.

One thing I always knew is that I’d make my own wedding invites. I’m a lucky lady with a wonderfully crafty sister-in-law to be (and you can check out her crafty blog here!) and I knew between us two and mum-in-law to be we could easily create some magic. So, after a long 13 hours and a curry break, we created these beauties, and it came in at just over £1 per invite!

Downtime for me comes with good food, good company, living in comfy, stretchy clothes, a little bit of a drink and basically doing the things that make me happy. Last weekend was my ultimate Becky-weekend, where we had a Harry Potter movie marathon and tried out our local Sizzling Pub.

I think I had been hiding under a rock as I had never been to a Sizzling Pub before, despite my nearest one being a mere 2 miles away. Sizzling Pubs have over 200 pubs across the UK, so why I hadn’t yet visisted one – I have no idea. This weekend, our local Sizzling Pub delivered exactly what I wanted and needed: a huge, tasty, flavoursome meal where I could enjoy some time catching up with my friends in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.

Whenever I go to the theatre, I’m one of the many people who’s guilty of getting something very quick and easy to eat or eating something very quickly before I go.

Miss Saigon was one of those musicals that I’ve heard about but never knew anything about it, except that it was set in Vietnam and had something to do about the war. I’ll tell you now: it did not disappoint and it was a fantastic evening. As well as getting to see the show, The Hippodrome had put together a Vietnamise menu to accompany the show which we were to try in The Circle Restaurant.